Review of Ship of Fools by Fintan O’Toole (Faber and Faber, 2009)

Fintan O’Toole is one Ireland’s best known social and economic commentators and cultural critics, and Deputy Editor of the Irish Times. Never shy about airing his views, he doesn’t pull his punches in telling it as he sees it, and in Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger he provides a damning critique of both the Celtic Tiger model of development and the Fianna Fail (and coalition partners) government since 1997. Rather than focus on one particular aspect of the present crisis – as with The Builders or Banksters – O’Toole provides a broad sided polemic on how Ireland went from bust to boom and back again in a twenty year period.

Written in a clear, engaging prose that is often angry and sometimes witty, he makes a compelling case that Ireland has experienced an acute case of crony capitalism – that is, the Irish government rather than steering the ship for the benefit of all its crew, became the vehicle for capital accumulation for the small group of friends milling about on the bridge. Indeed, it is telling that the book starts with two shipping anecdotes – one about the Sean Dunne’s (a developer) wedding to which high profile developers, bankers and politicians were invited for a two week Mediterranean cruise on board the yacht Christina O, owned since 2000 by an Irish consortium who wrote off up to two thirds of the €65 million cost against tax; the second about the Irish national yacht, the Ashgard II, which sank in September 2008 and which remains on the sea bed with little hope of salvage or replacement. The book consists of nine polemical essays, each focusing on a particular theme that together provide an overview of why Ireland finds itself in the mess it’s in.

The first chapter takes to task the notion that Ireland ever had a planned and coherent model of economic development (which it has recently been selling to every other wannabe developed nation), but rather was the beneficiary of a series of fortunate events largely outside of its control (such as the general, huge overseas expansion of US capital, structural funds from Europe, English language competence, social partnership, access to European markets, Northern Ireland peace process, etc), aided by lax regulation and a tax regime which enabled the attraction of significant foreign direct investment. Rather the narrative of economic development happened after the fact to explain Ireland’s catching up with other advanced economies, rather than forging ahead. And it was an economic model that had two fatal flaws: it only worked if there was sustained growth, and in O’Toole’s terms it was driven by stupidity and corruption that meant it became dangerous overheated so that collapse was inevitable. Simply put the economic model was geared towards over-extending ordinary citizens and over-rewarding those that were already wealthy.

The stupidity was the policy decisions of government and the head-in-the-sand approach to fiscal management and regulation, and the corruption was the blatant use of the state system for the benefit of high powered Fianna Fail supporters, the very close ties between business and state (particularly in the banking and property development sectors), and the general lack of accountability, transparency and prosecution of those defrauding the state (the focus of chapter 2). This corruption was powerful because it not only worked on a system of bribes but it: 1) fostered a sense of insider and outsider, wherein all other interested parties knew they had to participate to maintain competitive advantage (if one stock broker paid a bribe, they all had to to their maintain access to decision makers); 2) was largely condoned by the both the public sector regulators and the general public; 3) there was a culture of impunity wherein nobody was ever prosecuted for corruption and what is more if their corruption was ever exposed they maintained their access to power. In other words, corruption was allowed to flourish, and even now in the depths of the crisis it is still at work – for example in relation to how the banks have been bailed out, especially Anglo-Irish, and the setting up of NAMA protects the interests of high powered friends of Fianna Fail.

The vast majority of the electorate, he argues, let this happen because corruption, self-interest and self-duplicity and denial are embedded into Irish society. Low-level corruption, such as DIRT evasion or social welfare fraud, was widespread. Moreover, lots of people did well out of the boom with rising salaries, home equity, and small business growth. The politicians might have been corrupt, but many people were the beneficiaries. And if all politicians are corrupt, why wouldn’t you re-elect one that you knew to be so (because a tribunal had exposed them)? As long as they served local needs, they were welcome to skim a bit off the top.

In turn, he writes about the banking system, financial regulation and tax evasion; property development and the new class of super-wealthy; land speculation and development tax incentives; Ireland’s role in global financial markets and the crash; the failure to future proof Ireland for the next phase of development with respect to education, information communications infrastructure, and key transport and energy infrastructure; and the ad hoc approach to addressing the crisis once it appeared that seemingly had more to do with protecting self-interests than the national interest.

Central to O’Toole’s analysis is the notion that Ireland is not yet democratically mature, with a weak civic morality and underdeveloped system of political governance, and an electoral system that encourages and condones local clientelism and corruption. He suggests that Ireland failed to create a proper democratic republic, to go through a process of political and social reform, the establishment a strong welfare system and collective interest, and to create a state independent of Church and local interest, as in other post World War Two, European countries. Instead Ireland persisted with two, essentially ideologically barren, middle right parties that were for all intents and purposes identical and which used a form of machine politics that were highly clientalist, reactionary and short-termist.

For him, the Celtic Tiger represented an opportunity to lay the foundation for long term economic prosperity, but it was squandered by a political party more interested in short term economic gain for a small elite. The solution is to complete the democratic project in Ireland through a radical overhaul of our political system and consciousness. This means in the short term the election of a party with a radically alternative vision to Fianna Fail, and in the long term the establishment of a ‘second Republic’ with reform of the Irish electoral system, reform of the tax system, and systematic tackling of political and economic corruption accompanied by much stronger modes of governance and regulation

Overall, O’Toole’s analysis is compelling. The first half of the book is a lucid, tour de force polemic. The second half is more patchy in its argument and content, and its focus drifts a little. The book is driven by strong observational analysis, and to my mind could have benefited from some explanatory frameworks derived from the social sciences, particularly political science. There has, for example, been a debate between social scientists in Ireland as to the extent to which Ireland is a developmental state. It would have also been nice to have some comparative analysis that placed Ireland – economically, politically and socially – in relation to other European nations. Personally, I felt the conclusion also needed further elaboration on what needed to change and why, using examples from elsewhere, to really push the point home. Nevertheless, it’s a fine piece of work that will no doubt be popular reading for many people in Ireland keen to understand the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger.

Rob Kitchin

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11 Responses to “Review of Ship of Fools by Fintan O’Toole (Faber and Faber, 2009)”

I have not read Fintan O’ Toole’s book so far (it is on the list for Christmas) but I think what is missing from debates and discussions of corruption, politics and the public interst in Ireland, has been attention to its specifically geographical aspects.

Debate framed in terms of public vs private interest, loosely associated with a concept of a dichotomy between local/clientalist interests and the national interest, reveals a high degree of state-centric thinking (assumed spatial congruence between society, economy and citizenship.

A critical geographical perspective needs to
ask at what scale is the public interst articulated and by whom and to what extent is it contested (assuming the validity of some notion of the public interest – defined in substantive or procedural terms is accepted.

Localist, territorial politics is a significant feature shaping politics in Ireland. Partly, because of the centralised nature of principal adminsistrative structures, this politics is often articulated in ways negativeley assocciated with clientelism and political corruption (such as Ministers bringing in investment to their electoral constituencies).

A critical geographical perspective on politics, democracy and the public interst in Ireland, needs to start from an acklwedgement of the politcs of scale and place through which key issues (and in particular those relating to spatial planning and development) are mediated and contested.

[…] risky investment, pushing up the cost to the government of borrowing money. If one was to follow Fintan O’Toole’s diagnosis of the Irish crisis it would be interesting to explore how many of these nations are […]

Did O’Toole go further and give an analysis which included partition as a critical aspect of the forces shaping this ‘failed republic’ that he speaks of? Or does he stop at the border like the majority of southern ‘thinkers’ who have been spoon-fed a diet of ire and outrage at northern nationalism, thus effectively lobotmising himself from being able to give a full account of why we are where we are? If he cannot give a full acount of the generation of this corruption – it derives from the devlopment of the irish middle class under british rule and was fostered post-partition by the links between state and class interests as a means of maintaining their new-found home rule from challenge – then he cannot give anything other than a purblind analysis and recommendations that will untlimately fail.

I finished Fintan O’Toole’s book recently and would agree with Rob Kitchin’s overview and assessment as provided above. Several thoughts come to mind on reading both the review and the comments posted above:

1. I think that we should not be surprised that the book is not a piece of social science research, as might have been wished for by the reviewer and one commentator. O’Toole is a newspaperman and gives us an overview of the story that assumes his own evidence-based research and synthesis. Moreover, he makes it plain in his introduction that this is the technique he is going to use — and then proceeds to “let ‘er rip.” Embracing the book essentially means that you’ve accepted this approach. In the end, I think it provides for a very agreeable story-telling technique.

2. Perhaps again reflecting his background as a reporter, O’Toole does not leave us with a prescription for the cure at the end. We are left to sort that out on our own, as perhaps we should (or else, we might have to elect O’Toole as king!). He gives us the colourful weaving of the story that makes up the blanket of our miseries. He does not tell us how to wear it.

3. I was particulary struck by O’Toole’s candid admission of this peculiarity of the Irish psyche: “The vast majority of the electorate, he argues, let this happen because corruption, self-interest and self-duplicity and denial are embedded into Irish society. Low-level corruption, such as DIRT evasion or social welfare fraud, was widespread. Moreover, lots of people did well out of the boom with rising salaries, home equity, and small business growth. The politicians might have been corrupt, but many people were the beneficiaries. And if all politicians are corrupt, why wouldn’t you re-elect one that you knew to be so (because a tribunal had exposed them)? As long as they served local needs, they were welcome to skim a bit off the top.”

I have heard this described as “fiddling” and discussed with a complete absence of shame or guilt. Indeed, those who are perceived as good at it are usually mentioned with “fair play to him.”

If there is any hope of developing a mature and respected place in the international community, this perspective of “its not illegal unless you get caught” and “fiddling” as a way of life has got to go. We have to be clear that public service and appropriate public regulation of private enterprise is in the public good and embrace that concept with actions as well as words — or continue to witness folks stitching a banana across the white field of the Tricolor.

4. I am struck by the common root that lies at both the stories in the book and the story of George Lee’s resignation of yesterday. That common root is anger, frustration and a sense of powerlessness that faces someone trying to confront and change the fundamental (indeed, systemic) issues confronting the Irish state. Yes, George and Fintan, there is a need for action and reform. But when you read the Constitution, you begin to get a sense of how difficult change is. So I dare to stand up and say to Rob Kitchin, to George Lee and to Fintan O’Toole, if its answers and a way out of this mess that you’re looking for, then address the problems with a constitution that gives us a seven-year government (yes, “not more that seven,” not the five years adopted by law); a ceremonial president who is not the chief executive of government; a head of government who is only a local TD and never rustled up more than 9,000 votes in his life (and earns more than the president of the United States!); TDs who are appointed on the basis of political spoils as heads of important state ministries and have not a whit of skills necessary for such a post; and a permanent civil service that is wedded to preserving the status quo and resisting any sort of change.

You want change, I ask Fintan O’Toole and all in earshot, then change the document that gives you the dog’s breakfast that you’ve got today. Demand a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” and not the sort of entrenched oligarchy that the current constitution gives you. Otherwise, why are you surprised at what you get…?

Finally, while I salute my brother Republican, civic.critic, I think it unfair to look to O’Toole’s book to give us solutions to the north/south problem in the context of dissembling the fine mess we’ve made of things on our side of the border. There is much to be said on this subject, and hopefully sooner rather than later, but we need to get the Republic’s house in order first. I will, however, dangle one morsel: Why not re-write a constitution as if there are 32 counties, not 26, and provide for the election and seating of representatives from Ulster…? If you want change, you need to provide the vehicle for it.

[…] could be explained in terms of the clientalism of Irish politics, as O’ Toole does here and elsewhere. However, it has also to do with broadely more structural problems to do with the Irish political […]

[…] book – but I did expect some attempt to make sense of the situation (as with Fintan O’Toole’s Ship of Fools, for example) and to provide a nuanced portrait of the public sector. In Ross and Webb’s […]

[…] a year on from Fintan O’Toole’s damning critique of the Celtic Tiger model of development in Ship of Fools and his analysis of the political and economic decisions that sailed Ireland onto the rocks. In […]

[…] the most disastrous financial and property bubble across the Irish Sea. Through all the years of crony capitalism and banking excess, the British right were nothing but supportive of Dublin’s economic […]

Hello everybody,
today we had our translation examination in Bavaria, Germany. We had to translate the book review above written by rob kitchin. can somebody of you guys can translate the text into german?
I think it´s quite hard because we german learners do not know some idiomatic expressions which are in the text.
maybe someone can help me.
greets from germany, nicholas